In the days leading up to Housing Day, the average House listserv will be bombarded with emails. There will be an interminable debate over the color of the housing day shirt. There will be emails demanding you wake up early for housing day. Later, there will be emails demanding you come to Annenberg to scream at the freshmen.

In the days leading up to Housing Day, the average House listserv will be bombarded with emails. There will be an interminable debate over the color of the housing day shirt. There will be emails demanding you wake up early for housing day. Later, there will be emails demanding you come to Annenberg to scream at the freshmen. And just when you think it’s over, when everyone seems ready for spring break, when you select the last email exhorting you to “welcome the new freshmen at the open house!” and mark it as spam, you realize it’s not. Because “doofus@college.harvard.edu” has just sent his own email over the list, fundamentally misunderstanding the subscription notification email. It’s a classic mistake, but it’s also a prime example of why freshmen should stay off House listservs.

Someone—probably an overeager freshman—will correct doofus@college’s mistake. Five minutes later, “didntgetthememo@college.harvard.edu” will send out his own email. Even worse, “overcommitted@college.harvard.edu” will soon be sending out reminders about the Trivial Pursuit Club meeting in Lev common room. Please. I don’t want to hear about it. Even if you are serving free pizza. It’ll probably be gone by the time I get there. Or it’ll be from The Just Crust.

Freshmen, be warned—House listservs will soon become the bane of your existence. You thought the first two weeks of freshmen year were bad, when ambitious@college.harvard.edu started campaigning for the UC over the Weld list? Just wait until people start asking for costume accessories or easy SPU classes. Don’t let yourself be the person you’ll hate in a year. You’re better than that.